China’s population shrinks despite two-child policy: experts

China’s population shrank last year for the first time in 70 years, experts said, warning of a”demographic crisis” that puts pressure on the country’s slowing economy.
The world’s most populous nation of some 1.4 billion for decades limited most families to one-child in an attempt to keep population growth sustainable.
But since 2016 it has allowed couples to have two children in response to concerns about an ageing society and shrinking workforce.
The number of live births nationwide in 2018 fell by 2.5 million year-on-year, contrary to a predicted increase of 790,000 births, according to analysis by-based academic YiFuxian.
Yi,a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a long-term critic of the one-child policy and his work has previously gained traction among the country’s leadership.
Enforced through fines but notorious for cases of forced abortion and sterilisation, the one-child policy caused birth rates to plummet after it was introduced in 1979.